A portrait of Dr Meboobul Haq hangs up the wall of Korean parliament as a tribute to the late Pakistani economist who brought that nation from utter poverty to developed nations in the world. Haq is regarded as messiah by Koreans, but he failed to bring any change in his own country thanks to political expediencies and official rigmarole. The country was in the economic mess in the past and it is in the same situation even today. A simple question for the policymakers to answer: why Pakistan has not made progress as compare to the other countries in the region despite all the economic indicators are in its favour? The answer is simple. The ruling elite and official machinery lacks ability, capacity and capability to keep themselves abreast of the changing circumstances. They are still living in the colonial past and all the administrative measures they take are to suppress the subjects than bringing any good to them. It is the legacy of the colonial era and mindset of the political elites that they are born to rule this nation without owning it. They work for personal interests in this country and as they have established their businesses in foreign lands. They enjoy protocol in this country but prefer to keep their wealth and businesses in other countries.
The second reason of the backwardness of this nation is lack of ability and capacity of the political elite and official machinery to evolve affective strategies for the development of the economy. All their policies revolve around generating revenues at the cost of the business and economy. Until know, the government’s tax amnesty scheme failed to achieve any laurel, withholding tax on banking transactions has spoiled the banking industry and recent change in property rules have bulldozed the real estate sector. The financial managers have so far proved their inability to give a balanced budget. And once the federal and provincial budgets are announced, a trail of mini budgets follows and this exercise brings nothing good to the economy. It is unfortunate that visible or invisible maladministration dominates every government department. Administrative failure is the failure of this nation. How it deserves progress when its policymakers are unable to solve even a simplest equation. It is time the ruling elite mends its ways and rid itself of the legacy of the colonial past and colonial mindset. The policymakers should learn from others experiences instead of making new mistakes or repeat their old failures.
The current political fragmentation is part of democracy, but it should not affect the economic activities. The administrative failure is already visible in the form of law and order, energy crisis and fiscal instability where the loans are obtained only to keep foreign exchange reserves at certain level.
